Aberforth Smaller Companies Trust, often shortened to ASCoT, is the largest trust in the UK Smaller Companies sector with nearly £1.6bn in assets. Launched in 1990, it makes up the majority of funds managed by the UK small-cap specialist, Aberforth Partners. It's run by a team of six individuals, five of whom have only joined Aberforth in the last few years. Unlike many of the trusts in the sector, it has a distinct focus on value and it largely ignores AIM shares, rarely uses much gearing, and has a relatively low profile among private investors despite its large size. Its value bias may offe...
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This is our weekly roundup of investment trust announcements and data. The tables with the week's biggest gainers, losers and discount changes, courtesy of Numis Securities, is below the summary of the week's trust news. If there are trusts you are interested in, the links in the last section will take you to the relevant London Stock Exchange announcement. The percentage figures in this list show the share price responses on the day of the announcement. Please note that the charts and weekly and year to date performance data were correct as of Friday morning.
This week's news It was anoth...
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Our latest Q and A for premium subscribers is with Peter Hewitt, the manager of the BMO Managed Portfolio trust. It has two share classes (tickers: BMPI and BMPG) and two portfolios, one for income and one for growth, both of them invested solely in other investment trusts. We last had a Q and A with Peter in May last year (link here), and he was also a guest on the weekly investment trust podcast in September, a week when Simon Elliott was away.
What is the interest in this trust? For one thing, it is a useful one stop shop for around 15,000 private investors and the income share class (t...
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Jonathan Davis As noted last week, our content is now being published as it is produced, with a single summary email on Saturday afternoon and a second catch up and reminder on Mondays. After Simon Barnard, the manager of Smithson, this week, I have a number of interesting Q and As coming up over the next few weeks, so please stay tuned.
On my radar I have mentioned Odyssean Investment Trust (ticker: OIT) several times as a trust I like. I shall be doing a catch up Q and A for subscribers with Stuart Widdowson, the manager, next month, but at the moment I have been digging a bit further into ...
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Personal Assets Trust is designed with private investors in mind and famously says its "primary objective is to protect and increase (in that order) the value of shareholders’ funds per share over the long term". It became self-managed in 1990 and was run by Ian Rushbrook from that time until his death in 2008. Sebastian Lyon of Troy Asset Management has been the manager since 2009, employing a similar style to Rushbrook with a large proportion of assets in inflation-linked bonds, similar to the approach taken by the two other popular wealth preservation trusts -- namely Capital Gearing and Ru...
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This is our weekly roundup of investment trust announcements and data. The tables with the week's biggest gainers, losers and discount changes, courtesy of Numis Securities, is below the summary of the week's trust news. If there are trusts you are interested in, the links in the last section will take you to the relevant London Stock Exchange announcement. The percentage figures in this list show the share price responses on the day of the announcement. Please note that the charts and weekly and year to date performance data were correct as of Friday morning.
This week's news It was anoth...
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Jonathan Davis As we move into 2022, and the range of content continues to expand, we are proposing to make some changes to the timing of the content we publish. Most will now be published as they are written and become available, with a summary email going out at the weekend. As noted last week I welcome comments and suggestions from readers, although we don't (and cannot) offer personal stock or portfolio advice. Stuart's profile this week features Finsbury Growth and Income, managed by Nick Train of Lindsell Train.
A recap on our approach As the number of subscribers to the Money Makers ...
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Nick Train has managed Finsbury Growth & Income for 21 years and has handsomely beaten the UK market during that time with the trust's net assets growing from just under £100m to over £2bn, helped by lots of regular share issuance. As with other Lindsell Train funds, this trust holds a very concentrated portfolio of 'quality growth' shares that are seldom traded. However, 2021 was a difficult year for this style of investing and the discount at Finsbury Growth & Income has widened to 5%, its largest level for a decade, and its board has taken the rare step of buying back some shares. N...
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This is our weekly roundup of investment trust announcements and data. The tables with the week's biggest gainers, losers and discount changes, courtesy of Numis Securities, is below the summary of the week's trust news. If there are trusts you are interested in, the links in the last section will take you to the relevant London Stock Exchange announcement. The percentage figures in this list show the share price responses on the day of the announcement. Please note that the charts and weekly and year to date performance data were correct as of Friday morning.
Winterflood Charts 07 January 2...
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Jonathan Davis The first thing is to wish all the members of the circle a Happy New Year and to thank you for supporting this Money Makers venture in its first year. I really had no clear idea of how this was going to develop when I started, only that I wanted an opportunity to share with like-minded investors some of the information and insights that I am privileged to enjoy myself as a long serving participant in the financial markets, with a particular focus on investment trusts, the connoisseur's choice of investment fund. With the help of my colleagues Stuart and Ben I am hoping to grow ...
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